Headlines

The biggest news of the past few days were the remarks Vladimir Putin made in regards to Pussy Riot’s trial (via Reuters):

Putin said here was “nothing good” about the band’s protest, Interfax reported.

“Nonetheless, I don’t think that they should be judged so harshly for this,” he said, adding that it was up to the court to decide the case. “I hope the court will come out with the right decision, a well-founded one.”

And what a defense attorney for the case had to say on what Putin’s position could mean for the trial:

“Given the significance of such signals, we can expect some softening of the prosecution’s position,” he said.

Meanwhile this morning, Miriam Elder, the Guardian‘s correspondent in Moscow, has been covering the trial and tweeting regularly from the courtroom. Apparently there was an awesome disturbance this morning…

There are people in balaclavas outside the courtroom window. Tried to take a pic and was kindly reminded it’s not allowed.

The court was shut down for part of yesterday following a fake bomb threat – full story at the Moscow Times:

The trial of three Pussy Riot band members accused of hooliganism for a punk performance in a Moscow cathedral was unexpectedly interrupted on its fourth day Thursday, after staff ordered the evacuation of the court on receiving a bomb threat.